Genomics:GTL

Genomes to Life Contractor-Grantee Workshop I
Arlington, Virginia, February 9-12, 2003

Welcome to Genomes to Life Contractor-Grantee Workshop I

Welcome to the first of what we hope will be many Genomes to Life (GTL) contractor-grantee workshops. Although only in its second official year of funding, GTL already is attracting broad and enthusiastic interest and support from scientists at universities, national laboratories, and industry; colleagues at other federal agencies; Department of Energy leadership; and Congress.

You are part of an exciting era in biology as we begin to systematically leverage the knowledge and capabilities brought to us by DNA sequencing projects into an understanding of the functioning and control of entire biological systems. GTL certainly is not the first, nor will it be the last, to conduct “systems biology” research, but we believe the program offers a roadmap for these new explorations. GTL research is, of necessity, at the interface of the physical, computational, and biological sciences.

GTL will require the development of technologies that will enable us to “see” biology happen at finer scales of resolution. It also will require a substantial integration of our broad capabilities in mathematics and computation with our new knowledge of biology. Only with this integration can we achieve GTL’s fundamental goal: to understand biological systems so well that we can accurately predict their behavior with sophisticated computational models.

To enable this goal, GTL aims to develop these new technological, analytical, biological, and computational capabilities into cost-effective, widely accessible, high-throughput capabilities analogous to today’s DNA sequencing factories.

Microbes are GTL’s principal biological focus. In the complex “simplicity” of microbes, we find capabilities needed by DOE—indeed by our entire nation—for clean energy, cleanup of environmental contamination, and sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide that contributes to global warming. In addition, the fundamental knowledge and technologies developed in GTL will be broadly usable in all areas of biological research.

This first GTL program workshop is an opportunity for all of us to discuss, listen, and learn about the exciting science, identify research needs and opportunities, form research partnerships, and share the excitement of this program with the broader scientific community.

We look forward to a stimulating and productive meeting and offer our sincere thanks to all the organizers and to you, the scientists, whose vision and efforts will help us all to realize the promise of this exciting research program.